Date: Dec 5, 2012 11:35 PM
Author: Paul A. Tanner III
Subject: Re: WG 13 Announcement: CERME 8 [Turkey]
On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 12:57 PM, kirby urner <kirby.urner@gmail.com> wrote:> On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 11:40 PM, Paul Tanner <upprho@gmail.com> wrote:>>>> On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 5:26 PM, kirby urner <kirby.urner@gmail.com> wrote:>> ...>> > So this myth that there's a 1% elite of financially well-to-do that>> > rules>> > the world>> ...>> > There is no such thing as the 1%, or the 99%, but it helps to have a peg>> > to>> > hang your mask on anyway.>>>> It's a brute mathematical fact that now more than 90% of all newly>> created wealth and income goes to the top 1% of the income>> distribution, but even just recently it was much less than that ->> under Clinton it was down around just 40%.>>>> That doesn't translate easily into being a ruling elite though. Look at> history.>> I'm not saying I don't believe in smallish cliques and cabals with power and> influence.>> A lot of them don't have tons of money though.>> It's not like the "1%" are all in collusion, planning the future behind> closed doors, while the "99%" are out in the cold, clueless and not> contributing.>> That's way too simplistic a caricature.>>>>> > We don't buy in to the silly obsolete concepts they still buy "back>> > east">> > where the infrastructure is more decayed and the people think more like>> > Euros and Brits (poor slobs).>> >>>>> Silly obsolete concepts? Poor slobs? It's a brute mathematical fact>> that the Scandinavian countries are per capita the richest countries>> in the world, where, for example, the per capita nominal GDP of Norway>> is twice as large as that of the US. And it's a brute fact that>> according to the science that actually tries to measure happiness>> among countries, Norway is the happiest country in the world.>>>> So by your reasoning do Scandinavian countries now rule the world?>>

I did not address "ruling the world" - that is your invention.

I addressed your implicit denial that there are some bad things goingon in terms of democratic access to wealth and income in the US bypointing out the facts that show otherwise.

I addressed your claim that so many wrongly believe that all of Europeis a bunch of poor slobs by pointing out the facts that showotherwise.